Ep. 1319: Where we look through the other side of the glass: The 404

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The 404: Ep. 1319: Where we look through the other side of the glass

36:39 /
August 13, 2013

Whoever said tech and religion don't mix haven't seen JewGlass, a Google Glass app to help practitioners keep the faith. This plus the legacy of AOL dial-up software, iPhone ringtone origins, and an arcade cabinet subscription service on today's 404!

-What's up everybody?
It's Monday, August 12th, 2013.
This is the 404 Show on CNET.com.
I'm Jeff Bakalar.
-I'm Justin Yu.
-I'm Ariel NuÃ±ez.
-Thanks for tuning to the program kids.
-Hey, Ariel.
-Hey.
-Welcome back man.
-Thanks man.
-I just wanted to say hi.
Good to have you back man.
-Thank you.
-Although that was a good show on Friday.
-You missed me?
Oh, yeah.
Was it?
-Yeah, and Richard was around corking the board for us.
But it's good to have you back.
-Thanks.
-At least temporarily before you leave again.
-Yeah.
-Right?
-Last week, and then after that I'll be gone for two weeks.
-So, Thursday is your last day, right?
-I'll be here Friday.
-Oh, you'll be here Friday?
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-And that's it man.
-Uh-hmm.
-And then it's all downhill from here.
-Yeah.
-And then it's like over for me.
-Okay, goodbye.
-Take it from someone who knows--
-Yeah.
-Goodbye my friend.
-So where is the honeymoon again?
-Jamaica.
-Okay, goodbye.
-Jamaica man.
-That was the last time we saw Ariel.
-Yeah.
I won't be coming back.
I'll be staying in Jamaica.
-I heard it's beautiful this time of the year.
-Yeah?
-Oh, you never hear about it--
-It's beautiful all year round.
-Yeah, you never hear about Jamaica being like-- oh, it's terrible now.
-Yeah, that's true.
-They got 3 inches over in Jamaica.
And then you're gonna have so much fun.
-Yeah, I can't wait.
-That's the first time you ever been?
-First time.
Yup.
-All right.
He's gonna move there.
-Yeah.
-It's what's gonna happen.
-Yeah, bring me back a souvenir.
-Yeah, a souvenir.
-Whatever you want.
-It's not like you can-- anyway.
-Yeah.
-So we got a nice week of a shows planned out for you tomorrow.
Peter Ha and Mark Milian will be here.
-Uh-hmm.
-That's always questionably fun we don't know how it's gonna work out 'til they get here.
It's either gonna be great or very awkward.
-Yeah.
It's weird.
-We anticipate it.
I don't know.
-Yeah.
-No, it's gonna be a good time.
-And then we got some other things going on in the hopper that we're simmering-- we're cooking.
-Uh-hmm.
-Getting into a find, tender
texture if you will.
-Taken that metaphor too far.
-I just love food man.
I just wanna eat.
I'm hungry.
I'm hungry for some news Justin Yu.
What do you got?
-You actually got the first one.
Why don't you tell us about AOL?
-All right.
-That's the biggest news of the day.
-So I didn't know this at all and it came to me-- and this is like an old story, it's from February apparently.
Well, believe it or not, and I think I know who's responsible for this.
-Uh-hmm.
-But AOL, everyone knows what AOL is.
They really kinda turn
into like a news company, an advertising revenue company.
-Uh-hmm.
-Now, word comes that this company that we all grew up with using "Welcome.
You've got mail." I agree, who cares?
They still sell over $600 million worth of dial-up internet per year.
-Right.
-Now, think about that $600 million.
Now, dial-up can't be that expensive.
-No.
-How much are we talking for each one?
-They have a lot of
different plans, so-- does this article actually have the breakdown of the plans?
'Cause I've looked it up-- yeah, here it is.
-This is what's crazy.
-You can get plans down to $5.
-Yeah.
-There are several different tiers of plan you're gonna get.
-It's all dial-up.
-Yeah.
-It's all ISP dial-up.
-Only when you dial-up.
-I was-- still have to put roughly, 2.8 million dial-up subscribers who pay over $19 a month for that.
-Right.
-You could easily pay less than that and get DSL, I think.
-Uh-hmm.
Well, I think the argument is that there are some places in America or
wherever that, you know, there in the states and so--
-I guess man.
-they can't even get DSL service.
-Don't you think that's a tax on like the isolated American?
-Yeah.
-Doesn't attack some like just 'cause you're a hillbilly, you're being taxed?
-Right.
-And when I say hillbilly, I just mean, you know, you're living in the middle of nowhere.
-No.
Plenty of people-- yeah, plenty of people build gigantic houses that are way bigger than ours.
-Sure.
-But just up on the hill.
-Right, and 'cause that land is free.
-Yeah.
-That comes out to 53.8 million bucks
per month and well over $640 million a year.
Okay, now put that money in perspective.
AOL is still pulling in more money from dial-up than any of its other segments, which includes all of the revenue they make across all their content brands--
-They've got the Huffington Post--
-That's in gadget, that joystick that's every freaking subsidiary that they run.
-Uh-hmm.
-They're making more money as a freaking dial-up company.
-Wow.
-And that includes Patch.
-Right.
-That includes patch,
the very newsworthy company called Patch.
-Right.
-Do you think it's just one guy that just hasn't logged off in 20 years accidentally--
-It's just like a--
-The computer on--
-accruing all that.
-Yeah.
And he's like, "Damn it."
-Oh, man.
-No.
It's definitely just parents and older people that feel-- I feel like AOL really praised on older people.
And I guess that's the problem that-- that's solved overtime.
But, you know what I mean?
I feel like parents are just being sucked into this idea that when they want to cancel, I think a lot of their retention employees, when you call up and
tell them you wanna cancel, they sort of instill this fear in you, right?
That I'm sure, you know, have you ever canceled AOL before?
I remember when I did that.
I called them up and they're like, well, you know, if you get rid of AOL, you're getting rid of a lot of the various protection packages.
-Right.
-You start of going off to the wild west of the internet.
-I was like, "Oh, yeah.
Well I could blow a smoke up your ass too Mr. Person on the phone."
-Yeah.
Well, we know that because we're working tech and know a lot about it.
-Right.
-The parents probably get afraid to that.
-Yeah.
-That plus also--
-Parents get afraid of that.
-Yeah, they must be afraid of that.
-They may not be parents.
-And then the other side of it is probably that
they're worried about losing their contacts in your e-mail addresses and stuffs like that.
-Yeah-- 'cause they think when they cancel-- no they did.
-No.
That's probably the mindset.
-Well some people probably think if they cancel their AOL, Facebook goes away too or whatever the hell it was.
-Right, right, right.
-But now, other amazing things here to take note of.
I didn't know they're almost 3 million dial tones in America.
Apparently there are 'cause that's how many people subscribed.
-Yeah.
-There was a huge revelation in the-- I wanna say, maybe around 2000-2001, when the huge exodus from AOL
was happening.
I don't know when that was, I'm just throwing a year out there.
I remember going to my parents and saying, "Hey, Mom.
Hey, Dad.
You can cancel the AOL ISP thing."
-Right.
-And then 3 years later after I was done explaining what ISP meant.
They were like, "Oh, you mean I can still use AOL but bring my own internet connection?" which essentially the takeaway from that lecture.
-But people still don't get that.
They think that--
-They don't get that.
-if you want the internet, you have to get the AOL also.
-And I understand that.
They thought AOL was the only way to get to the internet.
-Yeah.
-And apparently,
roughly 3 million Americans still think that's the case.
-All people man.
-'Cause you realized that even if the only access to the internet you have is through a landline phone dial-up.
-Right.
-There are cheaper things to do than over $19 a month.
There's no way like, I'm sure there's like a $4 a month ISP that serves the planet.
-Yeah.
-Or whatever the hell it is, right?
'Cause as long as you're using the phone, it doesn't matter where you are.
-Uh-hmm.
I'm just amazed that people are willing to spend
the time and be patient enough to wait for a page to load-- now.
-Yeah.
-Right?
Because, it was a long time ago and that was before videos and pictures were showing up on web pages.
And I can surf in the web with the 56K modem and a dial-up connection right now, it must be tortures.
-It's kinda funny because even when you go back like 10 years.
-Yeah.
-I was watching this movie on HBO called Clear History.
Have you heard about this?
-No.
-It's a Larry David movie and it's just-- it's basically like a 90-minute curb episodes but it took place in
2003.
-Yeah.
-And like even the internet then was just like not where we are now--
-Yeah.
-where it's just instantaneous and awesome.
-Yeah.
-Everyone's carrying Blackberry and stuff like that--
-Uh-hmm
-It was very telling.
-I wanna know how long it would take for a NetFlix movie to buffer.
You know, that-- percentage before it gets load up--
-Oh, I forget.
-on 56K modem.
It probably be 15 to 20 minutes.
-Much I think way more than that.
-Even low-- yeah.
I'm sure it's buffering--
-And the lowest quality.
-Yeah, right.
Oh, man.
Forget about skipping through YouTube videos.
You just have to watch the entire movie all the way through--
-So here's--
-savages.
-Here's an interesting tidbit coming from the chat room.
I'm not sure this would apply to 3 million internet users.
But Ark in the chat room says, "I used to work for the business end of a major ISP.
Many of the dial-up connections I handled was mainly power plants, windmill diagnostics, water plants and other diagnostic lines for industrial plants.
Fine.
But are those people using AOL?
Was it like the-- you know, the power plant dialing to AOL?
-Yeah.
-I don't know about that.
-No.
It's probably like PacBell or AT&amp;T directly or something, right?
-Whatever it is.
That's just a little disserting at these seemingly important power facilities--
-Yeah.
-or relying on an ancient internet technology.
-I remember listening to this clip that someone posted on Reddit and it was an audio clip or just an mp3.
And it was this guy that was calling up on behalf of his father to cancel his Dad's AOL account.
-Uh-hmm.
-And I remember it was just like this 5-minute call and he started it off just asking the guy to cancel it and the guy asked him
a bunch of questions about why, you know, your typical call center survey stuff.
But the guy-- the retention agent on the other end of the line just would not cancel the service.
He kept asking him like, why.
You know, I see that you logged on yesterday and the guy was like, "No.
My Dad doesn't even have the AOL software on his computer."
-Right.
-It's probably just, AIM that he is accessing-- well, you know, with AOL, you get AIM, plus all these other news packages and things like that.
And he just wouldn't cancel it and it turned out that these call center agents actually work on bonuses if they
retain customers.
-Right.
Sure.
That makes sense.
-So it's in their interests, you know, the call center and the company to really keeps you on the line and make sure that you continue paying 'cause then they get bonuses for their paycheck.
-Right.
No, I mean, it's a commission-based of course.
-It's a really funny phone call.
-What other incentive would they have to keep them accustom?
-Yeah, I don't know.
-I'm sure that works with like-- I'm sure-- well, I don't know with like that.
But I'm sure it's just as aggressive, right?
-Yeah.
-I'm sure it's like that with-- excuse me-- cable companies and the other internet companies as well.
-Right.
-You know--
-Have you guys tried that, by the way?
There's these rumors that if you call up your cable company like Time Warner--
-Yeah.
-and threaten to cancel and then they'll give you--
-For sure--
-a sweetened package.
-Absolutely.
-But then I've heard these other horror stories, where you just threatened and then people are like-- yeah, fine.
-They're like cool.
You're done.
-Yeah.
-No.
That doesn't happen.
I mean, you-- I guess the best way to like play it and maybe we should do one as a test.
-Yeah.
-It's my 2-year FiOS discount just expired and I'm pissed.
-Yeah.
-I'm paying like a $1.70 for everything now.
-Yeah.
-And I don't wanna-- I don't wanna pay that.
I don't wanna pay like, I don't know, $38.
-Right business.
-Is that seems like a fair price for cable and internet each month?
Anyway, I wanna call them and see what I can do.
-Right.
-You know, maybe do my Bakalar charm and see if that lowers the monthly fee.
-Yeah, try it.
-It won't-- I want to ping more somehow.
-I wonder if anyone listens to the 404 on 56K.
I wanna know.
If anyone's listening right now--
-I mean, that's the reason why--
-They probably still listening to the first episode, right?
-Well, our show is-- the
audio is only like, it's under-- it's usually under 20 minutes, it's not--
-Oh, I don't know.
How long would that take?
-A while.
-Yeah.
-You'd really wanna listen to it.
You'd really have to wanna listen to it.
-I don't know why you're listening to 1 like 2 episodes.
Maybe you listen to--
-It would take a while.
-Yeah.
-You're better off just using your 4G phone that you probably have.
-Yeah.
That's a lot of money.
-Yes, a lot.
-That's really a test meant to AOL's advertising in the 90's, right?
The fact that people associate ISPs with AOL and the fact that, you know, if you didn't have it-- the internet.
-They were the God--
-Yeah.
-Like they were the ones-- they didn't have a monopoly but they
really had a strangle hold on to market.
-That's amazing.
-Like that's-- if you wanted to use the internet, it didn't even occur to you--
-Right.
-that you could use like prodigy--
-Uh-hmm.
-or there's other one.
What the hell-- see, I don't even know what the hell they were.
-Yeah.
-You know.
And that was the only-- that was the big option.
-Uh-hmm.
-And they were always local accessed telephone numbers.
-Right.
-Like you always did not, you never have to worry about using a long distance call.
-Yeah.
And you know how they did is by giving it away for free, which is something that I think a lot of digital providers can learn from right now.
-With discs in the mail.
-With those free discs.
Yeah.
People got those previous and they just did it 'cause there is no reason not to.
-But it wasn't-- but you weren't like the software was just a part of the thing.
-Yeah.
-You weren't really getting anything for free.
-Right, 'cause it was free in you.
-You know, and it was just like--
-But that's the trick man.
-Yeah.
-It got you.
-All I did with those discs was like build art--
-Yeah.
-and have like posters.
-Threw them at neighbor also.
-You know?
-Yeah.
-If you're really good flinging those discs was a lot of fun.
-Yeah.
-You get them a lot in college.
-Uh-hmm.
-All right, moving along.
Tell us about
what do you wanna do with the text message noise?
-Yeah.
-That sounds interesting.
-So-- well, this isn't really gonna concern you but for a lot of iPhone users.
Have you ever been out in public before and, you know, you were just in the crowd walking around and all of a sudden you hear this.
-Yeah.
-And you think that everyone was like kinda check in their pocket--
-Yeah.
-and make sure that they didn't get the text message.
Well, yeah.
Gizmodo actually has a profile and the origin of that sound, [unk].
-I think that's interesting.
-Yeah-- talking this for the next
half hour telling you where this iPhone tri-tone came from.
-Okay, cool.
All right, let me settle myself.
-Just get comfortable.
Pour yourself a drink.
Smoke if you got them.
Gizmodo has his profile, the origin came from this woman named Kelly Jacklin.
I'm sorry.
Kelly Jacklin is a man.
I just read the story.
A man named Kelly Jacklin, he ran this AV studio in the early 90's called Jacklin Studios.
And that was where he do really designed that tri-tone.
And, do you guys remember-- let's hearing the tri-tone before the iPhone's came out.
What was this associated
with?
-Was it an OS X thing?
-It was.
If you ever burn the CD, you'd probably--
-Oh, right.
Completed.
It means done.
-Right?
Yeah, yeah.
So after you finished burning the CD, that tri-tone would come up.
But it got started because a friend of his owned a music app called Sound Jam MP, right?
And he needed a noise that would play when the disc was done burning.
And so-- Kelly Jacklin actually created this noise along with the bunch of other ones that we can listen to because he posted the alternative--
-Can we--
-to make it.
-Oh, no.
-Oh, we can.
-Time out Justin.
-Are we about to have alternate iPhone text message?
-If you're a good boy.
Well, listen to it.
-Let's hear it.
Let's hear it.
-Here they are.
So we'll play some of them while we're talking about it.
-Oh, that would have been terrible.
-No, no.
No.
Who wants that?
-So these are all rejected and eventually he made the one that made it and Apple bought the rights for that sound and eventually associated with iTunes.
And then when the iPhone came out in 2007, they also supported it over for that.
-I wonder
how much did he say how much he got.
-Nope.
Didn't say.
I mean, no one think it's worth.
-I mean, you can't put a value on it but whatever he got, it wasn't enough.
-No.
-Right?
There's no way he got paid reasonably for it.
-Well, I mean, how hard is it?
He pressed 3 keys on it.
-No.
But like, you know, the tech is finding that right iconic, soothing, psychologically pleasing tone is a tough thing to do.
-Right, right.
-You know, they did it with, you know, just like we're talking about AOL with the AIM noises.
-Uh-hmm.
-There was something magical about that noise.
-Right.
-And you just felt good inside.
It triggered all the right synopsis and everything in your brain.
-But if you're smart, you're gonna change your ringtone--
-To make it custom.
-Yeah, to make it custom so that that doesn't happen to you.
-Right.
-First thing you'll do is throw away these assholes.
-Right.
Yeah, no one wants that stuck.
-Yeah.
-Do you guys have custom ringtones on your phones?
-I do, a Jack one that you introduced me to.
-What?
-Which one?
-You know what I do.
You know what I mean?
-I think I know which one f this.
-Play it.
-I don't have it up.
But which one is it?
-It's the Back To The Future one.
-Oh-- and that twinkle?
-Yup.
-Nice.
-A Back To The Future twinkle.
-Nice.
So let me see if I could find that.
-It's, you know, they started using it-- I think in the first one.
It's basically like the discovery chime like every time Marty like discovered like something about time travel.
-Uh-hmm, right.
-They'd play this twinkle.
And that's what-- and the second you hear, it's just you immediately know it's Michael J. Fox--
-Right.
-perking his eyebrows up or something.
-Now, is it the two part 1 or
just the first one.
-It's the 2 part 1.
-Well, then--
-Can you play it?
-I'm trying to find it right now but--
-It's on SoundCloud.
-Yeah, I'm looking up SoundCloud right now but it's not loading.
But that is a good one.
I remember finding out about that.
-That was you.
That was all you.
I stole that from you and just waited 'til now to tell you about it.
-Yeah, thanks for that.
You just never get phone calls so I never hear it.
-Right.
That's true.
That's true.
-What about you Ariel.
Do you have [unk] ringtone?
-No.
I keep my phone on silent all the time.
-Oh, okay.
-Yeah.
It just vibrates.
-It's a conversation starter.
-It is, it is.
-You know?
-Yeah, it's a good one.
-You're at the bar.
-Uh-huh.
-You got
a text message.
And all of a sudden-- there you go.
-Oh, wow.
-It's-- I have a different one.
It's like there's two of them.
-Oh, really?
-There's like a high and then a low.
-Oh, okay.
-There it is.
-Oh, this one.
-Yeah, that's my text message,--
-That's the one.
-which is just great.
-Soothing.
-Yeah.
-Super soothing.
-I used to have the Power Rangers tone for a while and that one just didn't get any replies.
I don't think people remember that.
-You have a good one you used now.
-Oh, now I have the Nextel chirp.
-Yeah, which is smart.
-Yeah, that's cool.
-Yeah.
That's cool.
-Yeah, I have the Nextel chirp.
-You're good at that.
You're not good at a lot of things but you're good at finding obscure pop culture chimes--
-Yeah.
-to be used as SMS alerts.
-Well, I went to school for it.
-Right.
-And majored in ringtone finding.
-That's what you do for a living.
Yeah.
What is he good at?
Well, it's not-- you should put that on your resume.
-And find some cool creative ringtone.
-Yes, yes.
-And find me one, I need one.
-I'll get you one.
-Yeah.
Hook you up.
-Something that says Ariel.
-Yeah, that's tough.
-He created ringtones, I like this.
-Yes.
-I'll think of it.
-He get you a-- you pay Justin $25.
-Uh-hmm.
-You give him a little explanation of the kind of person you are.
-Right.
-Maybe link him to your Twitter, your Facebook.
And--
-I follow you around for a while.
-Follows you around, takes photographs of you while you're getting changed and whatnot.
-Right.
-And then in 12 to 18 weeks, you have your very own--
-Perfect ringtone.
-Almost perfect.
-A perfect line of SMS alert.
That's what you do.
-That's a great business idea.
-That's it.
-I'm gonna register that LLC, right now.
-At a low, low cost of $349.
-Yeah.
-What a deal.
-It almost can be yours.
-That's perfect.
-Set up a payment plan, we're good.
-Yeah.
-That's it.
-Perfect.
Let's do it.
-And if you pay $1,000--
-Yeah.
-you're on the yearly subscription thing.
-Uh-hmm.
-For twice a year, you'll get a new one.
-And I'll call you once a day so you can hear that ringtone in action.
-Yes.
-I mean, I think this is a great platform you ever did.
-I agree.
-And it's affordable, which is the most important part.
-[unk] day.
All right, Jeff.
I'm gonna need you to relax on this next story 'cause I don't know if you read the-- if you read the headline.
-Nope.
-But it's pretty funny.
It's called JewGlass.
-Okay.
-Could you guess what this product would be with the name like JewGlass.
-JewGlass?
-It's something like--
-I feel like JewGlass is like a super-- you know, it's like a nickname you would give, you know, like a bank teller, and go, "He's behind the JewGlass." It's not?
-I don't think that's funny.
No.
-And do you think that's funny?
I don't think it's funny.
-I don't know.
I was like-- it's the first thing it came to mind.
Is that offensive?
-You tell me.
-I don't know.
-[unk] Jewish person.
-Or like when you're going to like buy jewelry.
He's behind the-- I don't know.
I'm sorry if that's offensive.
-[unk].
-I'm Jewish, so I am technically allowed to say these
terrible jokes.
-Yes, yes.
-That's to me like-- pull up to the Jew-- I don't know.
That's just what I'm saying today.
-Doesn't sound right to me.
-You were allowed to laugh.
You were allowed to laugh.
If you think it's funny, please laugh.
-Is it offensive to call someone a Jew?
-I don't think so.
-In the same way that it offense calls someone a Jap?
-Wait a minute--
-How is that different though?
You're gonna essentially shorten-- it's a 3 letters.
-It's not about the abbreviation.
-And you're using the word, "Hey".
-It's not about the--
-Hey, Jew.
Hey Jap.
-It's not about--
-Not Jewish-American Princess like a Japanese person.
-That is much less offensive I think.
-What about Jappy?
-Yeah.
Well, that's Jappy like, "oh, she's from Long Island."
-Right.
But to call--
-Super Jappy.
-someone from Japan a Jap--
-That's--
-Is it not okay?
-from what I gather is like a very--
-What?
That's pretty offensive I think.
-derogative-- yeah.
Derogative terminology.
-But a Jew is not offensive.
-Like--
-That strikes me--
-If you say like, "The Jew" like "who's the last to get picked in softball?", "The Jew." I mean, you don't say that.
-Yeah.
-You don't even like--
-Maybe like down turn in the tone.
-Right.
-"The Jew".
-It's also like a Borat thing like, you just can't--
-Yeah.
-I have no problem like, "Oh, is he a Jew?" "Yeah, he's a Jew."
-Yeah.
-But wouldn't you just say Jewish, right?
-Yeah.
-What about effin Jew?
-Well, I think that's-- less than like dirty Jew.
-[unk].
You don't want-- it's always adjectives in front that preface the Jew singular.
-Right.
The Jew by itself is an offensive.
-I don't find it offensive.
No.
-Okay.
-I don't find-- but look, I find nothing offensive.
So you're gonna have to try harder than that.
-Okay.
Well this JewGlass is actually
perfect for you because it's a new way to help people who are struggling with the details of Judam-- or Judaism sorry.
-Judam?
-There's a lot of details about Judaism that are--
-Judaica, please.
-Judaica that are hard to follow.
-God, my people didn't die so you could screw up the terminology.
-Now, there you people.
-Jesus Christ was also a Jew--
-A little sensitivity right there man.
-Geez.
-And I could say Jesus Christ too 'cause he was a Jew too.
-Yeah.
-See?
You didn't know that?
-No, I don't know that.
-I didn't know that either.
All right.
Go on.
-So there's a lot of details for people that are-- want to practice Judaism and a lot of these details are sort of hard to keep track of like Jeff, for example, you're a card-caring Jewish man.
-Hold on.
I'm answering something on the chat room.
-Okay.
What are they asking?
-That's pretty great.
-What?
-So, our buddy Schneid in the chat room goes, "Are you still Jewish if you don't follow the Jewish faith?" because I guess he's asking me.
-He's like you.
Yeah.
-He was like "Oh, yeah.
I'm still technically Jewish like--
-Uh-hmm.
-you know, I'm still technically white, right?
-That's really--
-That's the biological--
-That's a terrible answer.
-awful analogy.
-There's no such thing as white Jeff.
-Yeah, I don't know how to make an analogy for it but, sure I am.
-Maybe not a practicing--
-I'm not practicing, observing or any way [unk] perform.
-Right.
You're a hand-me-down Jew--
-I'm a--
-like your parents were Jewish.
-It's kinda like by blood, you know.
-Yeah, reluctant Jew.
-I'm not-- yeah, sure.
Go on.
I'm gonna get a call from
some freaking Rabbi now, seriously.
-Yeah.
Jeff, did you know when Shevat starts and finishes?
What are the indicators of that?
-Sun down on Friday.
-Yeah, that's true-- a few minutes before sun down on Friday but I'll give that to you.
-Go and sue me.
-And then when is it over?
-That I don't know.
-Oh, that's one is a tricky one.
That's very [unk]
-Is it Sunday morning?
-No, no.
Well, it's only one day so it would be--
-Oh, it's Saturday night.
-around Saturday night.
But what indicates the finish of Shevat.
-It's all the Sun, like it's all Jewish care about is the sun
going down.
-Yeah.
Well, part of the sun-- the stars in the sky.
-Really?
-Apparently, yeah.
It finishes on Friday evening.
-When the North Star has just passed--
-Close.
Until the appearance of 3 stars in the sky on Saturday night.
-Come on.
-The 3 stars appear in the sky on Saturday night, the shevat is gone.
-And if it's cloudy, you just wing it.
I like-- I don't get it.
-Yeah.
-Right?
What are you doing when it's cloudy?
-Yeah.
-And there's not like--
-Well, you could push straight through them.
-Like Orthodox used to-- do they go outside and just stare at the sky and then--
-Maybe.
-Because apparent--
-Maybe.
-Yeah,
I don't wanna-- I don't--
-Maybe, big telescope man.
-I can't keep talking.
I can't keep making fun of things that I don't know a lot about.
So--
-Well, there's-- that's my point is that there's a lot of things that you have to sort of keep in mind.
And if you don't have a good memory or you don't wanna write them down, there's now a Google Glass app called JewGlass that will let you know all these things as you're walking around right into your eyeball.
-Sure.
-So things like when Shevat starts and finishes.
Where the nearest synagogue is and where you can find a mobile prayer book
if no physical book is on hand.
It'll bean the book of the Torah into your eye.
-Now, again, I have no rabbinical training or whatsoever.
-Uh-hmm.
-People do not consider me a practicing Jew or even a god Jew--
-Right.
-Or even an attractive Jew.
But one thing I'm pretty sure about is that the Orthodox guys who can't like turn the lights on and off during Shevat or whatever-- if that what it is.
I don't know.
I just think this would probably be like not
Approve.
-Uh-hmm.
-The JewGlass app itself--
-Right.
-is impure and not kosher.
-You have to put that down on Shevat.
-Like that fact that you're using technology on your face--
-Right.
-there's no way-- I mean, you just can't have your cake and eat it too.
-Right.
-Especially if it's made with kosher--
-Could it be like the help of young people that are learning about the culture--
-Yeah.
-maybe on schools or something like that?
-Yeah, I think that's what it is.
-That's right.
-Maybe.
But I just think, yeah I feel like it's not--
-It sort of oxymoronic though.
-Yeah, it is.
-But for that--
-Yeah.
-There's a tinge of irony.
-They have the Shulcloud, where you don't have to actually to wear it on your face.
And that's a real product too.
I'm not joking about that.
-What the F is that?
I feel like you know-- already know so much more about Judaism more than I do.
-It sounds like a joke but for Shevat and holidays, where you actually can't put computers on your face.
But you--
-No.
You can, like there's a lot of time.
If you are a very Orthodox Jew--
-Yeah.
-hasidic Jew,
you can't do a lot.
-You know, Passover-- you know--
-You can't do a lot of things that modern technology has afforded the human race.
-Right, which is where the cloud comes in handy.
The Shulcloud.
-I don't know if clouds are kosher either.
-Yeah.
-I'm serious.
-Yeah.
Maybe not.
-I'm serious.
There could be some, you know-- but you know what?
The people who wanna do it they'll find a technicality--
-Right.
-Will Rabbis-- you know.
Give his blessing.
-Yeah, look it like a wand or something to turn on the Shulcloud.
-No.
There's no wand.
We're not wizards.
We're not a wizard raise of people.
-Yeah, there's like a stick, right?
I mean, I've seen technology like advertising--
-We may have built the pyramids Justin but we're not wizards, okay?
-You guys-- like waving in a--
-Like [unk].
We are--
-Not the shul, no.
The Shulcloud is a product that's made by the same company as the JewGlass guys, which is a company called Rusty Brick.
And the Shulcloud basically streams data on prayers and holidays, specific instructions on how to sort of celebrate the holidays to screens in synagogues that are sort of connected ahead of time
and then their program to start automatically so that they require no physical interaction with the electronics.
-I still think-- I think still that Rabbi somewhere would have a problem with it.
-Okay.
-All seriousness.
-For those Rabbis, there's the No Chametz App as well.
-You said that beautifully great.
-Yes.
-You sounded, I mean, you might as well put on the Yamaka.
-Thank you.
-I tell you man.
-Well, bless me then.
Yes, so Rusty Brick also creates another-- they have whole bunch of different apps that are suppose to help you with your Judaic practices.
-Right.
-One of which is the No Chametz App, right?
You know what Chametz are?
-Is that bread?
-Yes, leavened bread, right?
Air five.
-You core, yeah that's it.
-So the same company has this app that basically guides Jews to the process of sorting and searching and eventually destroying the leavened bread in your house for holidays like Passover.
-Is it wrong?
-Yeah.
-It seems pretty anti-humanitarian.
-Yeah, like giving it away and things like that, you know.
-Okay, let's do that.
Let's give it away.
-We're not burning bread on that--
-All right, okay.
Yeah.
-But, yeah.
So there are a lot of
technologies if you can interact with them--
-This is very interesting.
-on how to use it.
Yeah, if you're Jewish and want to incorporate that.
That's pretty cool.
-You understand like the vast majority of Jews aren't like, you know, they don't have to have these regulations--
-Right.
-in their day to day.
-I thought Jewish practitioners weren't actually allowed to use technology at all.
Or that's the Hasidic Jews, right?
-Yeah.
I think that's--
-We talked about that city field--
-'cause they all went to city field.
Yeah.
-Right.
-Yeah.
So, one of the terms as they should just call it Jewgle Glass.
-That doesn't sound right to me.
-Sounds weird right?
-Yeah.
-You know, it sounds like a Jew hybrid.
-Jewgle.
-Right?
-Yeah.
-Like what are they're Jewish and what else?
What's the goal?
-It's not okay.
I don't know.
-They're like, yeah I don't know.
Anyway--
-It just don't feel comfortable.
-All right.
Well, don't worry.
I'm-- you know, I don't think we have offended anybody in that segment.
I know we have at least Rabbinical listener.
-Uh-hmm.
-So I will-- he'll be the barometer I guess.
We'll find out soon kids.
-Yeah.
-All right.
Let's go.
Let's move on.
-Okay.
I'm gonna skip this Twitter messages story 'cause I just realized this basically at Yelp.
-Okay.
-So the quick and dirty of that story is that there are researches at the University of Rochester that have somehow figured it out that you could monitor tweets to find out where there are like food poisonings trends in restaurants around your location.
-Right.
-Which is basically Yelp.
-Which is Yelp?
-Yeah.
-Great story.
-So, I'm gonna move straight to this
arcades story and, do you wanna talk about this?
-So I had found the story, but then when I posted it in the round down, I saw that Justin had done the same exact story.
Nevertheless, we could still chat about it because it's something that I would be absolutely ecstatic to participate in, should this sort of service move out East?
We're talking about a renting company that for $75 a month will give you your very own arcade cabinet to have in your house.
-It's ridiculous.
-Why is he ridiculous?
-He was like--
-I want to rent the hell of that.
-This is like the NetFlix, right or like Game Fly.
-Great.
-But with actual giant video game console.
-For $75 a month?
If I could get a pinball machine on my house for $75 a month, I would do it.
-Yeah.
-I would do it for $150.
-Yeah, it's pretty funny.
-Would you not rent like--
-That's pretty awesome.
I think it's cool.
-if you're into pinball as much as I am.
-Uh-hmm.
-And you literally go on vacation to play it.
Wouldn't you, for a couple of $100 a month--
-Sure.
-or if it's $75 is cheap as these guys were doing at NSF?
No reason to
move to San Francisco.
-Thank you.
-I would totally rock and roll with that.
-No delivery or pick fees.
You keep it as long as you want just like the NetFlix model.
-Great.
-And then--
-And when you're done, you just fold it up.
Put it in this mailbox and you're done.
-Yeah.
-That's it.
I love it man.
I would definitely do it.
I don't know-- I don't believe they offer pinball though.
-No.
-I think they're just doing arcade--
-No.
[unk]
-And they're doing like old school ones.
Example include Donkey Kong, Pole Position, remember that old school racing game?
-All right.
-Yes.
And the Street Fighter 2, Deuce.
-You know what's really cool about this is that, you know, you keep it for as long as you want but this is basically just run by these 2 brothers, whose passion is just video game consoles-- vintage video game console.
-That's cool.
-So they go to garage sales and flea markets and things and find broken ones that fixed them up--
-Fix them up.
Yeah.
-and then they just have a warehouse where they rent these out.
-That's good business.
-They probably personally deliver it to your door.
-They probably do okay if they-- well, I'm just-- it sounds like they're first starting out.
But this does seem like a viable business model especially-- I
mean--
-Did you have a storage container?
-Yeah.
-Do you have just-- a big storage facility, and that's it.
-What I'm worried about is-- okay.
So I'm using Donkey Kong.
It's gonna break while I have it.
-Probably.
-So when it breaks when I have it.
Do they come to my house and repair it or do I gotta return it and get a new one?
That's what I want to know.
-Well--
-It's $75 a month.
That's brilliant.
-Well, they say there's no charge for the repairs if the game breaks.
But if it's due to negligence or abuse you may be responsible for the cost of repairs.
And if they can't fix it within 72 hours, they give you
a refund for $2.50 for each day that you're out of a video game console.
-Brilliant.
-Wow.
-That's genius.
-Sign me the hell up.
-Yeah.
-I want it.
I wanna do it right now.
-That's awesome.
-I'm gonna play more than $3 worth of game each day it's there.
-Yeah.
-Right?
I'm gonna keep feeding dollars into this pinball machine.
-It's kinda like that it plays insert coin in Las Vegas, where we profiled last year at CES--
-Yeah.
-where you can go and just play the vintage game consoles.
But now, you don't have to interact with anyone.
-For sure.
-And you can join [unk] into your own house.
-It's great.
-Yeah.
-I know why they don't do pinball.
It's
too tough to maintain man.
-Yeah.
-Pinball is way too complex.
There's too many moving parts and then they're gonna ship this thing back and forth-- forget it.
-Uh-hmm.
-Things gonna get destroyed.
-I had a mini Sonic the Hedgehog pinball game.
-Are you talking about--
-Did you have those things?
-the plastic little one you got on Target for $4?
-No.
It was maybe like 2 feet long.
-You're talking about the plans of going to the Toys R Us for $10.
-No.
They had glass and all that stuff over it and it was maybe like 4-- like, I don't know, 5 inches wide.
-They may have glass.
It was plastic.
-No.
It was glass, 'cause I remember breaking the glass accidentally.
-When you cracked--
-Yeah.
-Either way--
-I dropped something
on it and it cracked..
-I appreciate those things.
-Yeah.
-Let's be honest.
-You know.
It's not a real--
-Yeah, you need real pinball to be a man.
-Uh-hmm.
-You know, let's say--
-[unk] imagine when you said a pinball machine.
-I want to be cool.
We could fit it in the other room, right?
-Probably the big one.
Yeah.
-Right?
Wouldn't that be tight?
-That would be cool.
-And that creates a really nice aesthetic.
You leave it on and it does it--
-It's got the light and everything.
-blips and bloops and all the lights are flashing.
-Yeah.
Feel like we would need a few of them.
-I say when you like 6 or 7, right?
-Yeah.
-A small arcade.
-Yeah, let's do it.
-There's a few--
I mean, you can find great pinball in Manhattan.
-Yeah.
-There's like reciprocal skateboards.
-Yeah.
-Have you ever been there?
-No.
-The guy's got a skateboard store--
-Oh, in his village.
-Yeah.
In the back, could play like a dozen pinball games.
-Yeah.
It's right about that apartment.
-Yeah.
-We're basically turning our new podcast studio into the foot headquarters from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Yes.
-How bad would you wanna live there?
-Do you remember that?
-They had like a ramps and they're like taken out loose cigarettes for some reason and they're fixing walkmans and things like that.
-Yeah.
You know-- dude you walk in and they just offer you drugs.
-Uh-hmm.
-You're walking-- they're like, "Here's the
drugs." Right?
-Right.
-You're like, "Oh, my God.
I'm like 13.
This is crazy."
-Yeah, yeah.
-Right.
-Then you roll in on your roller blades--
-Right.
-through a whole, you know, weaving maze.
-Yeah.
-And then you play, if you want to play billiards, sure.
You wanna drink?
You shouldn't be drinking, you're young.
But whatever where the foot [unk] we endorse that kind of behavior.
-Yeah.
-And then, all right, so you gotta commit some crimes or whatever.
-That's great.
Yeah.
-You're part of the club now son.
-Yeah.
-I love-- I would-- I remember when you saw that, you were like, "Man, I just want to be a part of there---
-I wanna live there, yeah.
-Unless you have problem.
I want Tatsu you to adopt me.
-Yeah, exactly.
He's like, he comes in, he's like "Hey, you know, my name is Tatsu.
-Yeah.
-I run this crew right here.
Do you wanna play some Pacman?
And then we'll show you how to rob an elderly woman."
-Yeah, we need that $5 membership fee before you leave today though.
-Just so you can put that funny-looking fly gas-mask over your face.
-Yes.
The Foot.
-The Foot man.
-And you gotta take all of these pins out or no-- they were like bells, right?
-Bells.
-And they can't jingle either.
-Right.
-No one knows overtime about it.
-That's the sequel.
-Yeah.
-You know what we're talking about.
[unk]
-I'm
getting some stuff and some stuff I don't get.
There is nothing funny here than watching Ariel connects the dots.
-Yeah.
-I mean, he's terrible--
-Yeah, I kinda lost at some point.
-We just-- we just know those 2 movies so well that we can just go on a rent.
Maybe that's what we'll do this year, finally.
-What?
-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 1 and 2.
-That was just great.
-Okay?
-TMNT 1 and 2, TGRI,
all the good stuff.
-Yes.
-If anyone knows where I can get a movie replica of the TGRI Ooze canister, please let me know.
Please let me know.
-They has this like 2 silver things on the side--
-Yup.
-or do you want the broken one?
-I want the broken one with some of the Ooze still coming out.
-Yeah.
And I want that sunflower too that he snapped off the--
-The gigantic sunflower.
-Yeah.
-That would be-- I appreciate that.
Well, thank you in advance.
-Incredible.
-Don't forget tomorrow on the show, Peter Ha and Mark Milian.
I
forgot where Mark's at now.
I think he's at Bloomberg, I wanna say.
-Uh-hmm.
-Not 100 percent sure but we'll know for sure when he's in the studio.
Tomorrow, Peter Ha, we're gonna have a great time.
866-404-CNET.
That's how you get in touch with our program or you can e-mail us to 404@cnet.com, better yet, get involved in the sub Reddit, reddit.com/r/the404, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that junk.
-Yeah, like I found the scene.
I'll put a link
to the clip in the run down but this is what we are talking about.
-I just want to party there man.
There's like--
-This is the arcade.
-do you pass out and whatnot?
-Yes.
-Like a skateboard or--
-So sick.
-Oh, there's like guys--
-There's just some rap crews going.
-Free everywhere.
-Game we're playing.
-Playing old school games and whatnot.
-It's amazing.
-It's just like a punk rocker rocking the bass for no reason.
[unk] gambling.
-That's amazing.
-And then there's just radioactive spills everywhere.
-Supervision.
I wanna cut the sleeves off my denim jacket.
Do it.
Sick.
-It's sick.
-Is Sam Rockwell, that guides you around too?
That's amazing.
-That's not Sam Rockwell.
-Oh, yes it is.
-Is it?
-Yeah.
-Regular or Menthol?
-That's how [unk].
That's too perfect.
We'll see you tomorrow.
I'm Jeff Bakalar.
-I'm Justin Yu.
-I'm Ariel NuÃ±ez.
-This has been the 404 Show, high tech, low brow.
That is not Sam Rockwell.
-It is.
And you're looking it up right now.
-We'll see you guys later.